Geovanny Soto hit a three run homer to cap off the scoring and Jon Leiber pitched a scoreless ninth to keep the Cubs ahead of the Red Sox for the best record in the big leagues.

Greg Norton started the scoring off for the Braves. Yunel Escobar walked to lead off the game and Kelly Johnson singled to put runner on the corners with one out. Jeff Francoeur, hitting third in Chipper Jones’ absence, struck out swinging (surprise). Mark Teixeira did surprisingly strike out following Francoeur to bring up Norton with two outs. Norton subsequently hammered the Ted Lilly offering to the last row of seats in left field. Francoeur’s line tonight? 1-5, 2 Ks, 4 left on base, and game ending GIDP on a 3-1 count.

With the score 3-0, Glavine proceeded to finish off the top of the order in the first inning facing the minimum. Glavine, however, did have trouble in the following innings. Kosuke Fukudome hit an RBI single and Reed Johnson added a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-2 Braves after two.

Leading off the third, Derek Lee homered to left field and Reed Johnson added an RBI single to give the Cubs the lead.

Brian McCann and Omar Infante added RBI singles for the Braves in the top of the eighth for Atlanta to get within one. But, both Brian McCann and Manny Acosta committed their second errors of the year, allowing Soto to even come to the plate to hit his home run.

Tom Glavine (2-3) took the loss and Lilly (6-5) got the win.

Injury update: I don’t know why I put these in the recaps anymore, it’s not as if good news comes out of these. Smoltz had arthroscopic shoulder surgery today to repair what they found to be a torn labrum among other things. No timetable for his return.

Glavine left the game with a strained left elbow joining the small village on the Braves injured list. Glavine is expected to miss AT LEAST his next start if not more.

Some good new, for real: Chipper took BP today and pinch hit in tonight’s game (BB). He may be back tomorrow, or Thursday in the series finale.

Tonight: Tom Glavine (2-2, 4.47) vs. Ted Lily (5-5, 5.23)

The Braves try to stay away from dropping below the .500 mark.  Jonathan is out of town on business, but we’ll try and have some game time conversation.  Chime in!